Genes, Brains, and Human Potential The Science and Ideology of Intelligence

108 REAL GENES, REAL INTELLIGENCE

at work, whereas it is only the self- organized dissipation of energy or
perturbation. “Order for free,” as Stuart Kauff man put it.^2
Th e world as we experience it mostly consists of such dynamical
systems. Th e river we may be gazing at is a fl ow of water molecules dis-
sipating energy. But as the fl ow encounters obstacles, the molecules self-
organize into waves, whirls, eddies, and currents as the most eco nom ical
way of doing so. Th e whirl pool you see persists, though the water contin-
ues to fl ow in the same old direction. Th e whirl pool is called an attractor
state, because water molecules nearby, caught up in the confl ict of fl ow
and obstacle, get pulled into it while the rest of the river fl ows on.

Heat

FIGURE 4.1

(a) Bénard cells forming in a layer of heated water; (b) An early stage in a Belousov-

Zhabotinsky reaction. (Photo by Stephen Morris. Diagram from Wikipedia.)

A.

B.

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